AUTONOMY AND RELATEDNESS IN MARITAL FUNCTIONING

The current investigation expands the focus of cognitive behavioral fo rmulations of marriage by exploring the constructs of autonomy and rel atedness in marriage. One hundred forty-one married couples matched to the 1990 U.S, census data on age, race, and income completed a number of self-report marital inventories including the Autonomy and Related ness Inventory (Schaefer, Edgerton, & Burnett, 1991). Autonomy was mea sured by evaluating spouses' perceptions of the extent to which partne rs encouraged a sense of independence and individuality for the spouse s. Relatedness was measured by evaluating spouses' perceptions of the amount of closeness that partners provided. It was found that autonomy and relatedness were significantly positively correlated with each ot her as well as with marital adjustment for both males and females. It was found that for females, the provision of relatedness (as reported by their husbands) was significantly related to the standards that the y held for the relationship. In addition, it was found that for female s, the provision of relatedness (as reported by their husbands) was si gnificantly related to the standards that husbands held for the relati onship. However no significant relationships were found between husban ds' standards and relatedness (either as reported by wives or by husba nds). It was concluded that it is appropriate to help couples think of autonomy and relatedness as being two important aspects of marriage t hat can exist together and are related to a satisfying marriage. Impli cations of the findings suggest that marital therapists could expand t he conceptualization of marital therapy beyond being primarily relatio nship focused to include attention to individual needs of the spouses.